Globally, an estimated 14 million people—including three million children and adolescents—suffer from an eating disorder (ED). As with other mental illnesses, these disorders are shrouded in taboos, making diagnosis and treatment often complicated.

“Talking about them, seeking help, and seeing them as what they are—illnesses—are the first steps toward recovery,” says Cipatli Ayuzo, a pediatrician and researcher at TecSalud’s Adolescent Clinic.

One of the most common misconceptions about these disorders is that they only affect adolescent girls who “want attention” and that simply choosing to eat is enough to overcome them. Still, the reality is much more complex than that. They can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, sex, or ethnicity.

In practice, Ayuzo and her colleagues have observed that an increasing number of adolescents suffering from these conditions are coming to their offices, which is consistent with studies indicating an alarming rise in these conditions among that age group worldwide.

“They are the third most common chronic disease in children and adolescents, after asthma and obesity, but of those three, they are the deadliest,” the researcher says. “Patients die of cardiac arrest or suicide”.

To contribute to optimal, adequate, and sufficient treatment, Ayuzo, together with Sugely Fonseca, Luisana Castillo, Valeria Rodríguez, and Nayeli Andrade −colleagues from the Adolescent Clinic and the Eating Disorders Unit (UTCA )− recently published a guided diary that serves as a tool to understand patients’ relationship with food and their body acceptance.

It includes a section that explains what eating disorders are, the journal itself, and resources for patients who want to seek help.

“Any Spanish-speaking person can use it”, says Ayuzo.

Journal of Eating Disorders​

To date, the term eating disorder (ED) includes the following disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, avoidant/restrictive food eating disorder, and other specified feeding and eating disorders.

Although each of these has distinct symptoms and signs, they are all psychiatric diseases that affect a person’s relationship with food and eating behaviors.

Contrary to popular belief, only 6% of people diagnosed with an ED are underweight, demonstrating that the assumptions people and health professionals make about them can often be misleading.

“They have genetic and metabolic bases, and yes, they are influenced by the environment, but they are diseases, not choices, Ayuzo emphasizes. “No one seeks to have one, no one wants to wake up one day with one of them.”

According to the expert, one of the most challenging aspects of these disorders is getting people to recognize that they have an illness and seek help.

Once they do this, in psychiatric, nutritional, or general consultations, they are usually asked to write down what they feel during the day in relation to their food consumption.

“What we saw was that the sheets where they wrote it down were later lost or forgotten,” the expert explains.

Therefore, the idea to create a journal that encompasses the aspects different specialists need to know to provide appropriate treatment arose.

“As a pediatrician and internal medicine specialist, I need to know if they have menstruation, tachycardia, constipation, and the state of their skin, but nutritionists may need to know how many glasses of water they drank and if they consumed dairy and protein,” Ayuzo says.

The Future of Eating Disorders Medical Care

Thus, the journal My Road to Recovery —which can be purchased on Amazon—can be a valuable resource for individuals struggling with these conditions to gain insight into their own relationship with their bodies and food, and for healthcare professionals to have the necessary information at their fingertips.

“It’s not a treatment, it’s a guide. The book alone won’t make a person recover, but it is a useful tool,” says Ayuzo.

In Mexico, there are few specific data on these disorders, but this doesn’t mean they don’t exist and that it isn’t important to continue advancing their treatment.

Through their journal, the authors aim to contribute to the promotion of adequate treatment for individuals living with them.

“There are people who think they will never recover, but the reality is that they can, 100%,” says Ayuzo.

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